Basically been seeing this person since December (we'll name her Lucy). And she's truly amazing and everything I could have ever hoped for in a partner. I'm not going to wax poetic or bore you with the details to respect your time. But try not to generalize or pathologize her by this one incident I'm about to describe to you (I think Reddit has an issue with this).
I'm looking for genuine advice to resolve this issue though.
So everything has been perfect and I've enjoyed getting to know her. Recently discovered she suffers from medical conditions like hypothyroidism, anemia, as well as PMDD and premature arthritis. As well as bouts of anxiety. But she's an extremely sweet and shy girl. The chronic PMDD in particular has led to her kind of ''disappearing'' unexpectedly for a day or two each month.
Apparently she suffers from debilitating period cramps and feels so miserable that she just rots in bed when this happens (understandable). She also seems extremely sickly in general and always seems to be under the weather with a cold or losing her voice.
I've since asked her to be a little more communicative with me. And it seems to have resolved the issue of her disappearing on me during this time. And I feel like she trusts me a lot more now (which is great).
But we live about an hour from each other, so this last week I've been extremely busy. And she's been kind of sick. Meaning we haven't been able to see each other like we usually do...
It's been difficult for the both of us but has also made me feel so distant from her. We tend to call and message a lot to close the distance a bit. But because she's been so sick she's been falling asleep on me 10 minutes into call. Which is fine but also hasn't been helping with the distance...
I told her on Thursday night how difficult it's been for me and how distant I feel from her. We both feel the same way. So she asked me if I could please, please call her on Friday night. And we'd make a night out of it and watch movies together while in call. ''Friday night movie night'' she affectionately called it. And kept on expressing how excited she was to finally watch the finale of Avatar with me (a show we've been watching).
Friday night came and she was a complete no-show though. I ended up waiting up for her until about midnight, when I finally just reluctantly went to bed...
She ended up messaging me at about 1 AM when I was asleep. She was her happy and silly self, but she gave absolutely no acknowledgement of having just missed our proposed night. All of her messages were just her responding to messages and memes of mine throughout the day (which I thought was odd).
Given that she was sick I'd have normally just assumed that she fell asleep on me accidentally. But a normal response in this situation would have been for her to apologize for missing our night.
I also noticed by her time stamps that she messaged me between 1:00 AM and 1:10 AM and then there was a gap of 40 minutes until she resumed responding to my messages at 1:50 AM.
Normally, this gap happens during the day, because she has just finished work and texts me while coming home on the tram. And then will stop texting me while she makes herself food and showers and settles in her bedroom for the evening before finishing her responses to me.
So this gap so late at night suggests that she had only just come home at midnight (when we had a planned night). Which obviously changes things a lot since it means she straight-up scheduled over me without giving me notice or an explanation.
I obviously have no proof of this so it's a very spicy and controversial allegation to level against her... But it doesn't look the best either.
How should I broach this with her?... I've kind of been avoiding her since Friday night because I don't know how to address this.

Basically been dating this girl since December (we'll name her Lucy). And she's truly amazing and everything I could have ever hoped for in a partner. I'm not going to wax poetic or bore you with the details to respect your time. But try not to generalize or pathologize her by this one incident I'm about to describe to you (I think Reddit has an issue with this).
I'm looking for genuine advice to resolve this issue though.
So everything has been perfect and I've enjoyed getting to know her. Recently discovered she suffers from medical conditions like hypothyroidism, anemia, as well as PMDD and premature arthritis. As well as bouts of anxiety. But she's an extremely sweet and shy girl. The chronic PMDD in particular has led to her kind of ''disappearing'' unexpectedly for a day or two each month. Apparently she suffers from debilitating period cramps and feels so miserable that she just rots in bed when this happens (understandable). She also seems extremely sickly in general and always seems to be under the weather with a cold or losing her voice.
I've since asked her to be a little more communicative with me. And it seems to have resolved the issue of her disappearing on me during this time. And I feel like she trusts me a lot more now (which is great).
But we live about an hour from each other, so this last week I've been extremely busy. And she's been kind of sick. Meaning we haven't been able to see each other like we usually do...
It's been difficult for the both of us but has also mad me feel so distant from her. We tend to call and message a lot to close the distance a bit. But because she's been so sick she's been falling asleep on me 10 minutes into call. Which is fine but also hasn't been helping with the distance...
I told her on Thursday night how difficult it's been for me and how distant I feel from her. We both feel the same way. So she asked me if I could please, please call her on Friday night. And we'd make a date night out of it and watch movies together while in call. ''Friday night movie night'' she called it. And kept on expressing how excited she was to finally watch the finale of Avatar with me (a show we've been watching together).
Friday night came and she was a complete no-show though. I ended up waiting up for her until about midnight, when I finally just reluctantly went to bed.
She ended up messaging me at about 1 AM when I was asleep. She was her happy and silly self, but she gave absolutely no acknowledgement of having just missed our proposed date night. All of her messages were just her responding to messages and memes of mine throughout the day (which I thought was odd).
Given that she was sick I'd have normally just assumed that she fell asleep on me accidentally. But a normal response in this situation would have been for her to apologize for missing our night.
I also noticed by her time stamps that she messaged me between 1:00 AM and 1:10 AM and then there was a gap of 40 minutes until she resumed responding to my messages at 1:50 AM.
Normally, this gap happens during the day, because she has just finished work and texts me while coming home on the tram. And then will stop texting me while she makes herself food and showers and settles in her bedroom for the evening before finishing her responses to me.
So this gap so late at night suggests that she had only just come home at midnight (when we had a planned date night). Which obviously changes things a lot since it means she straight-up scheduled over me without giving me notice or an explanation.
I obviously have no proof of this but it doesn't look the best either...
How should I broach this with her?... I've kind of been avoiding her since Friday night because I don't know how to address this.
​

Basically been dating this girl since December (we'll name her Lucy). And she's truly amazing and everything I could have ever hoped for in a partner. I'm not going to wax poetic or bore you with the details to respect your time. But try not to generalize or pathologize her by this one incident I'm about to describe to you (I think Reddit has an issue with this).
I'm looking for genuine advice to resolve this issue though.
So everything has been perfect and I've enjoyed getting to know her. Recently discovered she suffers from medical conditions like hypothyroidism, anemia, as well as PMDD and premature arthritis. As well as bouts of anxiety. But she's an extremely sweet and shy girl. The chronic PMDD in particular has led to her kind of ''disappearing'' unexpectedly for a day or two each month. Apparently she suffers from debilitating period cramps and feels so miserable that she just rots in bed when this happens (understandable). She also seems extremely sickly in general and always seems to be under the weather with a cold or losing her voice.
I've since asked her to be a little more communicative with me. And it seems to have resolved the issue of her disappearing on me during this time. And I feel like she trusts me a lot more now (which is great).
But we live about an hour from each other, so this last week I've been extremely busy. And she's been kind of sick. Meaning we haven't been able to see each other like we usually do...
It's been difficult for the both of us but has also mad me feel so distant from her. We tend to call and message a lot to close the distance a bit. But because she's been so sick she's been falling asleep on me 10 minutes into call. Which is fine but also hasn't been helping with the distance...
I told her on Thursday night how difficult it's been for me and how distant I feel from her. We both feel the same way. So she asked me if I could please, please call her on Friday night. And we'd make a date night out of it and watch movies together while in call. ''Friday night movie night'' she called it. And kept on expressing how excited she was to finally watch the finale of Avatar with me (a show we've been watching together).
Friday night came and she was a complete no-show though. I ended up waiting up for her until about midnight, when I finally just reluctantly went to bed.
She ended up messaging me at about 1 AM when I was asleep. She was her happy and silly self, but she gave absolutely no acknowledgement of having just missed our proposed date night. All of her messages were just her responding to messages and memes of mine throughout the day (which I thought was odd).
Given that she was sick I'd have normally just assumed that she fell asleep on me accidentally. But a normal response in this situation would have been for her to apologize for missing our night.
I also noticed by her time stamps that she messaged me between 1:00 AM and 1:10 AM and then there was a gap of 40 minutes until she resumed responding to my messages at 1:50 AM.
Normally, this gap happens during the day, because she has just finished work and texts me while coming home on the tram. And then will stop texting me while she makes herself food and showers and settles in her bedroom for the evening before finishing her responses to me.
So this gap so late at night suggests that she had only just come home at midnight (when we had a planned date night). Which obviously changes things a lot since it means she straight-up scheduled over me without giving me notice or an explanation.
I obviously have no proof of this but it doesn't look the best either...
How should I broach this with her?... I've kind of been avoiding her since Friday night because I don't know how to address this.
​

From what I recall it was an isometric title with point-and-click movement and frankly gorgeous pixel art environments. The avatars were fairly generic humans. It had a lot of steampunk elements to its setting (steam engines, airships, etc), a few fetch quests here and there (no combat), and each player had their own apartment in a single tall building.
The main town was on a floating island or high bluff. There was also a jungle with a temple, a tram system deep underground, and a mansion area, most of which was paywalled by a membership.
The game was canceled at some point, likely in the late twenty-aughts or early 2010’s, and I remember scrounging up the ripped music at one point because it was so quirky. Ring any bells?
I haven’t been able to find it on Wikipedia or any MMO interest sites. My computer with the MP3 tracks is long dead.

15/03/2024

I was invited to visit a family friend, or really just a friend, into the foothills and mountains (it looked like Avatar the Last Airbender) he was welcoming and nice. I looked around for things to do and walked and flew around.
I eventually came across a building, a great hall, it looked like it was built recently, I entered. In it I didn’t know what I was looking for, I found several stalls but it was mostly empty.
I was surprised to see a girl, Miho Nishizumi, or maybe a cosplayer cosplaying ms. Nishizumi, regardless I was taken aback by this discovery, I was so panicked that I ended up killing her, I don’t know how, I think I threw a grenade and ran, or maybe I self imploded, curling up and using my immense dark fire powers to blow up my surrounding area.
Regardless, I went out, I don’t know if I apologized or not, all I know is that I left. I attempted to find my friend at the lodge we were staying at, but he was not there, so I hitched a ride onto the nearest tram or train and made my way back into the city.
Fast forward, or jump cut, to me being in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. I’m doing mercenary work with another merc, y’know, basic shit. I think it was The Garbage, anyway.
I’m doing work, and then suddenly my wingman dies, either from an anomaly, or he gets shot, either way I start panicking, and I run as fast as I can to get the fuck out of dodge, I go into another zone- Dark Valley I think, and I attempt to bring up my PDA to fast travel, but I can’t, so I just look up to the grey skies in abject horror, before attempting to compose myself.
And then the dream ends.

21/03/2024

I had another dream, well actually I’ve had others dreams before today, but this one I felt deserved (or at least somewhat complete enough) to be recorded. It’s about girls und panzer again, sorry.
I found myself riding in a tank, headed for the zone. The exclusion zone, not the one in STALKER mind you, just one much like Andrei Tarkovsky’s film one. I was the lead tank in the expedition, here are some other tanks that I saw:
Saunders M4 Sherman
St. Gloriana’s Matilda
Oorai Porsche Tiger
We drove our way through the dilapidated area, I was throwing bolts, or maybe nuts, with white bandages tied to them, throwing them far away to dictate our path through.
We eventually reached a waypoint, and I went to the bathroom, to my shock, horror, and general melancholy: There were several sinks, and many urinals and bathroom stalls with wild west style doors. Aka completely useless bathroom. I walked around before giving up, and continuing my journey.

This Saturday, 9 March 2024 we will meet @ 1430 at The Tram Depot
The Cambridge Redditors Saturday Afternoon Drinking Alliance is for:
All those Redditors that will ask and have asked about how to make friends in Cambridge.
All those Redditors that are facing down the barrel of (another) lonely weekend
All those Redditors that have nothing better to do on a Saturday than to meet up with perfect Redditor strangers.

Just two rules: Be kind and respectful to others, this is not somewhere to find a hook up. And as always don't be creepy.
We also now have our own sub and a WhatsApp group, don't forget to ask to join when you come along.
edit: corner table, looking like our reddit avatar (pink hair pink hoodie, dead inside lmfao)

The idea is that in my world, modern machinery like airships, trains and cars are introduced to iron age to medieval styled cities and societies that have been designed around walking with narrow streets for thousands of years. I want to completely avoid the car only infrastructure of the USA and the lifeless glass buildings of modern cities globally, in exchange of traditional European and Asian city styles.
I want to be sure I can make the designs of these machines and other newer technologies fit into unique traditional styles of my world, to where even speaker systems, electric lights and train look like they have been fixtures of cities since the the empires of ancient legends. Imagine if ancient Persia had electricity, ancient China had trains or medieval Europe had radio.
I want to make it so automobiles fit in the world next to knights in plate armour and suitable for both the wealthy of my world and the ancient streets of my world. I don't wish to directly implant debadged versions of real cars. Basically, I don't want to do what some media have done where they removed a logo then directly imported a Ford Mustang 1:1(I plan to take some inspiration from Ridge Racer and Burnout for thinking of more original car designs). I want these machines to be a rarer exotic good in this world. Something that has to be imported manually by train, caravan or airship and is worth enough for pirates to rob. It is to the valley what the silk and pottery from China was iron age elites.
I don't exactly know how I would classify my world. It has some elements of steampunk(steam trains and propeller airships) and some elements of dieselpunk(internal combustion engines, gas cars, trucks, motorcycles, some electric cars, electric lighting in some places as well) and the most advanced in terms of technology have even made a breakthrough in early nuclear energy with tests of small atom bombs(but the projects are to a smaller scale than the Manhattan project with the final bombs being almost the size of the 2 used in WW2, with countries deciding not to use them because irradiated land is pointless for conquest). I also want some medieval Eurasian things mixed in their without the style breaking. Something that I didn't like about Avatar: The Legend of Korra was that it took a medieval Asian inspired world, and once newer technologies came into play coming from the advancements made during the war, turned a part of it into 1920s New York City(mainly in Republic City) with the monotonous buildings and multilane, car only highways. The only immediately notable design choice on the Satomobiles are those little corners transplanted directly from Chinese rooftops.
I have a theme of mixing the old and new and I've noted it in both my worldbuilding and my thoughts out of it. In worldbuilding, it would be the idea of knights in trains decorated with banners and heraldry. Outside, it's often something like imagining new cars with new internal technologies(safety features and things like that) applying old design features(like restomods, using old bodies).
TL,DR: I want to be sure that the newly emergent technologies like planes, landhsips, airships, radio, automobiles, motorcycles, electric lights and other such machinery do not break the iron age to medievalesque aesthetic want to keep. Castles with AA guns, armoured knights in landships, delivered by trains or airships, getting fire support from airships or trains, and the best knights going home and receiving an automobile for their exceptional bravery as an exotic gift from the empire. Vehicles built with stonebrick roads in mind, as they share the streets with trams, carts and pedestrians. How do I get these new technologies to mesh well with ancient cities and cultures without the societies turning into New York City or something like that? This includes stuff like banners and heraldry on landships, airships and trains, and clan crests on planes.
Sorry for the rambling, I was never good at creative writing.
Lapis_Wolf

It's always bothered me that learning many of the mechanics in CoH seems to be a "who you know" thing, instead of being easily accessible by finding them online or in forum posts. It sucks because while you can play and try things to discover and figure out how to do certain things, it can be problematic when you, for example, want to test something that could risk an iTrial badge or run altogether, ruining it for 15-23 other people. Or, for example, if you want to try the cutscene skip in MLTF, but you miss once, then to practice it, you have to run it again and convince 7 more people to stay at the door, which is a shockingly hard task.
SPOILER WARNING if you are new and haven't done any high level content, yet!
So, here's a list of in-game tricks and strategies that I have learned in the last year playing regularly. There is only one that I would consider close to the "exploit" category (a trick to tanking LR during the MLTF while minimizing the chance of dying), but I only use it/recommend using it if you are out of options to complete it first. I note that specifically below.
General:

• If you can't get through open elevator doors or open hatches in the floor, try clicking the top of the door frame or the edge of the hatch, and you will likely be let through. In the case of the BIG door in Lambda, you need to jump and click the top of the door frame as you are jumping.
• Assuming you have Teleport or Translocation /bind KEY powexeclocation target Teleport (or Translocation) will allow you to teleport to your target, including teammates. Especially useful for things like Burst of Speed, Teleport, Combat TP, etc. to get around corners or get to the next mob. I also use this bind for all my location target AoEs like Sleet, Blizzard, Rain of Arrows, etc. so that I can use them just like I use other powers without having to manually aim.
  • /bind shift+lbutton powexeclocation cursor Teleport is great for getting through small doorways that are blocked by enemies, pets, or allies.
• When leading and queuing a league for an iTrial, do NOT click "Lock League." This will often cause it to bug, kicking several people from the league upon trial start, including the leader, and messing up the teams drastically.
• Regardless of AT, buy and max out these two things from the S.T.A.R.T. Vendor: Envenomed Daggers and Power Analyzer. The Daggers do -250% regen on a 4-second CD, and the Power Analyzer will give you exact stats of a single enemy in your Combat Attributes window. This is helpful when you need to get AVs down to a specific health %, like Princess Zoe to get the Unfriendly Fire badge in the Aeon Strike Force.
• You can buy a permanent 10 additional salvage storage capacity with 250 Vanguard merits in the Vanguard base, as well as a 1-use Vanguard HVAS that will last the entirety of an MSR (wait to summon it until you are at the U'kon fight).
• You can easily target iTrial AVs/named bosses by clicking their red health bar in the league popup window.
• For 4* content and the Really Hard Way badge in the Magisterium iTrial, Carnies Core is typically the meta lore for AVs, as their Psi damage is unresisted :D
• Just take Degenerative Core for your Interface slot and be done with it.
  • EDIT: A couple of people in the comments pointed out this is a bad way to put this, so I'm rephrasing here: If you are unlocking Interface for the first time and don't know what to slow, Degenerative is a great one to start with, at least until you learn more about your build and what you might need, specifically. Interface buffs cap at 4 people on a team, so if more than 4 people have the same Interface slotted, the rest will effectively do nothing. But, I have never seen anyone outside of Hard Mode teams actively care about it, and certainly in iTrials I've never seen anyone checking to make sure Interfaces are evenly spread out. So, it's not something most players really will ever need to worry about, in my opinion.
• For farming, Banished Pantheon Radial is the optimal Lore, as the Defiler is the only unkillable Lore pet that has an offensive power--a rain. I have yet to see a use for any Radial Lore in other content, so unless you know of a specific use-case, stick to the Core tree for your Lore Incarnate slot.
• If you have a Dominator, try to get in on a 4-star Aeon run so you can get the Vanguard Dummy. It's great for building Domination outside of missions! The snowball temp power will also build Domination, even if used against allies.

BAF iTrial

• If tanking Siege for the "Keep 'Em Separated" badge, try to always keep your back against the wall under the awning. This will minimize your rings' effective range, since half of it will be inside the wall. ,Just keep pulling him from right to left against that wall if you need to back away from him because of your rings.
• If fighting Siege, try to leave open space for your tank to jump to so they don't accidentally sequester you or the whole team

Keyes iTrial:

• Priming the terminals just means putting one charge of the temp power into 6 terminals prior to Anti-Matter showing up. This way, you don't have to drag Anti-Matter to a terminal once he spawns at each reactor. As long as one charge is in the terminal, you can just fill them the rest of the way while a tank holds AM's attention, if needed.
  • There are 4 terminals on the bottom level and 2 terminals on the top level. If you ignore the middle level terminals, you will always prime exactly 6 terminals.
• Flight+fold space in-between two terminals will pull the mobs from both into the middle, freeing up terminal access for both simultaneously
• Without Fold space, it's quickest to fly around the outside of the reactor and taunt mobs so they run away from the terminals. Any AT with an AoE attack can do this same method, and it is the fastest way to get them away from the terminals.
• Just before the third reactor, if you have total invisibility, like a stalker with Hide, you can sneak into the bunkers via a vent on the backside, giving you access to all of the glowies before any enemies spawn.
• In the final fight, bring AM as close to his next charging station as possible to minimize the time freeze.
  • The Charging station order, if coming directly from the third reactor, is: far right, near left, then far left.
  • Fight him on the ground so the obliteration beam so the whole league can see the Obliteration Beam reticle on the ground. Have whole league turn off flight and avoid jumping, as well. If they jump at the moment they get targeted, the beam will fire in the air.

TPN iTrial:

• Only the third and fourth terminals in each building need to be clicked at the same time to guarantee the fourth terminal for public opinion. If you don't do them at the same time, you will only get credit for 3 out of 4 possible terminals in each building, which means it will take you one full building longer to get through each phase. For a trial that's already far too tedious, it's worth doing this each time.
• If you are using a Mind, Dark, or Illusion Dom to keep the Telepathists confused, your single target confuse must have the Coercive Persuasion set to last long enough for you to confuse all of the telepathists (if you only have one Dom). Power Boost from energy assault will also help. Keep some yellow insps on-hand, or use Nerve in your Alpha Slot to help ensure you hit. As long as Domination is active, it will only take one cast to confuse a Telepathist. It will take 2 without Domination.
• If you have 23 or less players, only 5 Telepathists will spawn. If you have a full league, 6 will spawn. If aiming for the badge, it's easier to run with 23 players.

Lambda iTrial:

• If you are a Gravity Dom/Controller, you can wormhole mobs off of the weapons caches and containers and down the hallway without aggroing them, leaving you completely safe to solo containers if needed.
• If you are tanking Marauder, you can ensure he never uses Nova Fist by hovering just out of melee range above him and taunting him. Don't go too high however, as if he jumps after you and exits the fort, you lose the trial automatically.

Dilemma Diabolique

• If you are tanking an MoDD run, then if the heroes spawn on opposite sides of Diabolique in the last fight, stand by one of them with your taunt aura on, and then use your actual taunt power on the other Hero as soon as you are able to target them. This will secure the aggro of both Heroes immediately, and the heroes are positioned far enough away that your taunt will not hit Diabolique.
• If you are a ranged DPS character, /macro ORB customtargetnext alive Lifegiving will give you a button to target any Lifegiving Essences. I do NOT recommend using "Essences" as the target macro word, as many Lores have the word Essence in their names, which will make this also target your league's Lores.
  • The targeting macro is especially helpful as often one will spawn or float right behind Diabolique, and you won't be able to see it without tabbing through targets or a macro.
  • Regardless of whether you kill all of the Essences in time, you will still see a message every 30 seconds that Diabolique has consumed all remaining Essences. As long as her health doesn't suddenly tick up at the same time, then you are still good on the badge.

Underground iTrial:

• If you don't want to get stuck with Des, buy "Self-Destruct" from the S.T.A.R.T. Vendor. It's the only way to break the tether manually without needing someone to TP you. Then she will be someone else's problem!
  • I buy Self-Destruct on ALL of my 50s literally for this reason alone. It stays in my power tray otherwise.
• If the league summons Lores right after the ritual phase at the beginning, they will be back up in time for the double War Walker fight later on, which is, imo, more important than saving them for the Avatar fight.
  • If you use them in double WW fight, use them to clear the next room through the elevator, then have the entire team dismiss them before advancing into the next hall way.
• Des only needs to be taken up to the trap room. After that, whoever has her can literally afk with her in the trap room for the rest of the trial and the badge for keeping her above 50% is guaranteed at that point. Make sure to clear the ambush that spawns just before the trap room entry door
  • There is a way to successfully break the tether on Des without putting her at risk. It involves leading her and all of her pets onto the barge in the room just before the trap room. However, I have not tested this myself and I do not know the exact positioning for it other than between the crates. To pull this off, you do need to bring her back to that point after the trap room is cleared and you need to make sure ALL of her pets are with her. I haven't tested this because it is an auto fail if Des dies, and if you break the tether and she goes off to fight something, you will not be able to run back to her in time to save her.
• To tank UG effectively, there are three things you need to know: 1. Keep EVERY big boss facing away from the league -- which is all three war walker fights and the final Avatar fight. 2. Take Ageless with you, as Avatar will drain your endurance in a heartbeat as a tank. 3. The Olympian Guards throughout the trial do not care about your mez protection. They have a mag 30 stun and will stun you if they hit you.
• If you are anything other than a tank or a brute, you need to fight each big boss from behind so you don't get oneshot.
• In the first bomb phase, you do not need to clear the mobs in the center bomb rooms (if Des is back in the trap room). You can just jump over them, kill the bomb, and jump back over them and continue. If you explain this to your league ahead of the first bomb, you can blitz the whole league through the first bomb phase like the second mission of the ITF where you speed to each crystal.
  • If you use the blitz strategy, using the Longbow Cataphract Prismatic Aether Costume is SUPER helpful for the league to be able follow you!
  • If you are leading through the blitz run, make sure to use one short animation attack per bomb so that you can stay ahead of the pack. Wait to initiate on a bomb until you have 2-3 others with you.
  • I typically also use a Bomb targeting macro and a "SIDE ROOM" macro so I can call out the side rooms to ensure no one skips past them accidentally without having to stop to type. "/macro BOMB customtargetnext alive demolition" and "/macro SIDE league SIDE ROOM"
  • A stalker with high ST damage (like Energy Melee) can also hide and blitz all 22 of the first bombs and incan the rest of the league to the next part. (Just make sure whoever has Des has TP prompt on and knows to ignore any TPs!)
• In fact, you don't need to defeat any mobs through the entire first bomb phase provided you are not bringing des with you, including the hallway directly after the last bomb. You can also skip past the mob in the small hallway leading to the very last elevator door before the final fight.
• In the second bomb phase, entering melee range on one bomb will trigger the next bomb up the line, so advise melee to stay back and ranged to creep forward killing one after the other without stopping in between.
• For the Avatar Assassin badge, you need to defeat Avatar within 3 seconds of a seedling detonation. The countdown is on your league pop-up window. The most successful tactic I've found is to have the team burn the Avatar down to 10%, dismiss ALL pets, whether controller, Dominator, mastermind, or lores, then tap to 5% or 3%. Make the KILL order at "Seedling detonation in 0:09 or 0:08" and you will likely kill Avatar within the 3 second window. If you make the call at 0:07 or 0:06, you will miss it by 1-3 seconds. This has been my experience, at least.
• Here is a video of a 45-minute MoUG run my SG did on Excelsior just this past weekend where we used most of the tactics above, including how I gave instructions just before the first bomb phase. I did just upload it while I was writing this post, so it may be in low quality when this post first goes up.

Aeon Strike Force:

• To get past the door in the second mission without having to fight, when talking to the guard, select Lie, C, and Cinderburn if you are the leader. Alternatively, any team member with a fire primary or secondary can talk to the guard and he will let the whole team through.
• In 4*, if a tank has flight or a jetpack, then during the big Vanguard fight they can taunt Hero 1 into the air against the ceiling, and so long as they are close enough to the league to still get Barriers, you should encounter no aggro or taunt issues.
• Turn your particle count down for the big Vanguard fight to ~36k or so to make it easier to see. Just make sure to turn it back up before the final Midas fight, or else you won't be able to see the blue beams of death :D
• To skip the cutscene in the first Golden Roller dimension shift, Translocation from the Sorcery pool will work from the drop point on the tram if you TP straight up the road. If you use Teleport from the actual Teleport pool from the same point, you will still likely trigger the cutscene. So, it is advised to float just off the edge of the tram and then TP if you are using Teleport.

Lady Grey Task Force:

• A Gravity Dom with four 50+5 range enhances can safely Wormhole Weakened Hami out of the goo once the pylons have been taken down. His mitos will stay put. I keep the Boosted Ranged IOs in my inventory with some unslotters in my inventory, so I can swap out my normal set IOs for these just for that mission and then swap back to get my set bonuses back after.
  • In your settings, make sure you enable "Show Distance" so you can see how far you are from enemies in your Target window. Pop some orange insps, fly down from above Hami, and once you're 140 ft. away, you can Wormhole him.
  • This allows you to defeat Hami without being debuffed, then you can kill the mitos after without the debuff too. This tactic is not nearly as "important" anymore with the changes to Hami's damage type.
  • I genuinely do not know if this is considered an "exploit," and will be patched out at some point. No idea. So, sorry if I ruin someone else's fun by revealing this! I don't consider it one myself, as I think it's a really unique and powerful use-case for a niche power that exists in ONE powerset.
• You can also break pylon tethers to Hami with Wormhole or Fold Space so that you don't have to destroy all of them, but this won't do you any good on 4* mode to prevent the Drop Ship, as they are making the Drop Ship spawn automatic after a certain amount of mission progress.

Ms. Liberty Task Force:

• To do the second cutscene skip in Mission 2, you actually have to skip it twice. The leader can do the first skip, but not the second. You do need Teleport or Translocation. If you are running the task force, make sure to give star to someone else so you can skip at beginning and end of mission.
  • Go through the portal
  • Immediately put yourself against the left wall right up against the first hall segment divider. Do not pass the divider.
  • Aim your teleport so that you will TP diagonally to the right across the intersection to the hall segment divider against the far wall on the other side of the intersection. Angle so you can get as far across that segment divider as possible. FIRST SKIP COMPLETE
  • Then you are clear to run outside and ATT/Incan your team.
  • Second part of the skip: After Viridian is defeated, have the rest of the team use Ouroboros to go to IP, and give the leader a minute to finish zoning out of mission.
  • Approach the same segment divider you TPd to for the first cutscene skip, but do not cross it (in other words, you are going to TP across the same intersection without actually going into the intersection).
  • Position yourself in the center of the hallway, and aim your TP toward the center of the double door that leads to the escape portal. Zooming in first person view is helpful, as you need to position your mouse so that when you TP, your mouse will be on the center of the door so you can open it.
  • As soon as you click TP, spam click the door while the animation is firing. You have like half a second after your TP to click that door. If done right, you will open the door just before the cutscene starts and you will see "Mission Complete" as the cutscene plays.
  • Then, if the leader calls in the mission immediately, you will get booted out of mission mid cutscene! If its not called in fast enough, you will be forced to sit through the cutscene while the rest of your team continues on. If you don't see "Mission Complete" as the cutscene starts playing, then you missed, and your whole team will have to wait for you, specifically, to finish watching it before moving on. It sucks to miss this one as they will wonder what's taking you so long, haha.
• For finding the vines, don't use a targeting macro, as you will often target dead vines that haven't receded yet. Instead, use these two slash commands to permanently display the healthbars and names of all enemies on screen even if they aren't targeted: /optionset showvillainname 1 & /optionset showvillainbars 1
• To use the Temp power on Aeon in the fourth mission, make sure to hit him once with a normal ability, THEN use the temp power. Or else he will still be invulnerable for another 20 seconds or so.
• In the big AV fight before LR, Kill Mako before Scirocco so that while you burn through Mako's Elude, Scirocco is still getting hit with Splash Damage. It's just wasted time to kill Mako last.
• In emergency situations, where your tank cannot handle LR, if they have a jetpack or fly, they can taunt him, and fly up to the top of the windows on either side of the doors he comes out of. Position yourself with your back against the wall and so that if he hits you with -fly, you don't fall all the way to the ground. If you taunt him (autofire it), he will continually jump at you and snap back to the ground because of his tether. As long as your taunt actually goes through his "UNAFFECTED," you will hold his aggro just fine.
  • This does occasionally cause him to glitch to where he just uses his really devastating cone attack over and over again in the final fight, which can cause problems.
    • Do not regularly use this tactic. I only recommend this IF and ONLY IF you are all the way to this fight and you discover you cannot tank Recluse otherwise. But I would encourage you to leave mish and buy some purple and blue insps before trying this tactic, even.

Lord Recluse Strike Force:

• In the first mission, you can click the Computer that's behind Crimson from directly underneath the platform he is standing on without aggroing him. Just go right up against the wall directly underneath it (don't need fly), and zoom out so you can click the computer.
• In the Future Freedom Phalanx mission, there is a random longbow minion you need to defeat on the corner part of the wall to the left of the Heroes. It's usually a Spec Ops or a Nullifier. If you get to the Heroes first, quickly take it out so you don't lose track of it during the fight.
• For the "Speak to Operative Grillo" talk mission prior to the Future Phalanx, if you have ATT or incan, you can use the Base Teleporter in the mission to go to your base or any other SG base you have a code for while still inside the prior mission before it's completed. Then, as soon as you zone into the base, click the portal again and it will bring you right back to the current mission door. You can use that to quickly exit the mission and run over to Grillo while the rest of the team completes the prior mission, then incan or ATT the team to the portal. Alternatively, you can leave a TT at the flier door and then run to Grillo.
• For the Security code in the Ms. Liberty mission, you can stealth click it from outside of the room it's in without aggroing the mob surrounding it. You need at least a Celerity+SS level of invis to get there without aggroing anything else on the way to it. Just stand against the wall right next to the doorway and position your camera so you can see it. You do need some purple insps or Barrier in order to avoid getting interrupted by the turret that will be on the wall behind you.
  • I haven't tested this myself, but I have seen it done: If you have Teleport with a range IO and you have the powexeclocation target bind setup, you may be able to teleport directly from the Acess Code back to your team in the hallway leading to Ms. Liberty without having to run all the way back. You are not exploiting or breaking the map to do this, so I don't consider it cheating or cheap. Translocation from the Sorcery pool will not work, as you cannot increase its range.

Imperious Task Force:

• For Speed ITFs, you can use the Base Teleporter trick mentioned above to leave the first mission when your team saves Solaris. You can then make sure you have TT already out as your team exits the mission.
• If doing a speed ITF, target the Nictus Essences first in the final mission before killing Rom. You will need 1-2 break frees if they are dying close together. But this prevents waiting for Rom to rez each time.
  • Tell your team to target through you.
  • Here's a targeting macro for finding the Essences. /macro NICT customtargetnext alive Nictus Essence
• In the third mission, the General with a mob consisting entirely of Minotaur and Cyclops EBs is the only general that requires you to defeat his entire mob before moving on.

A lot of these may not seem important, but the group I regularly play with really enjoys doing Speed TF trains of the high-level TFs/SFs, so a lot of these time-saving tricks add up when you do them one or more times per day across multiple toons. It's to the point that I try work Mystic Flight & Rune of Protection into all my ranged toons and Teleport into all my melee toons specifically so I can still utilize these strategies.
To anyone who has wondered how to do many of these things, I hope this post helps you. It actually shocks me that I couldn't find any tutorial online for how to do the MLTF cutscene skip, though I could find reference to the skip method all over. That is actually what inspired me to make this post!
And if you're on Excelsior, make sure to join the Sovereign SG (that's why the blue and gold guy is that's always kneeling in Ouroboros!) We have an active Discord with over 1,700 builds you can access, plus nightly events throughout the week!
Feel free to add any tips, tricks, mechanics, or strategies in the comments for any that I missed!
​

Wiki - Timeline - First - Previous - Next
Within hours of the Terrans repulsion of the incursion by void predators into Sol sytem, [Sways-With-The-Wind's-Hymn] and Ambassador Hool had been urgently requested to meet with Ambassador Petrov and Admiral Walker regarding "unexpected acquisitions".
An understatement if there ever was one.
"You did WHAT?!" Hool cried.
"Emily Elizabeth here..." Walker began, gesturing at Silver's holo-avatar, "allowed an infant Void Wolf which survived our attack to imprint on Selection Pressure."
Petrov had idly commented they might try this, when Hool had first informed her of the dangers of using [Ripple Drive] technology. He just hadn't expected it to, well........ actually happen.
Hool flexed his gills in exasperation. "Just because the closest translation of our term for this species in your language contains the word "wolf" does not make that thing a puppy!"
"You say that now, but wait until you see the video of Silver feeding it with a maintenance drone" commented Walker dryly.
"I know right? Only tried to eat the bot twice! And once Fenrir figured out the 200L drums filled with crude oil, ice, scrap metal, and U-235 were meant for him, it was like watching a human child taste chocolate for the first time" replied Silver happily.
"You've already named it?" Hool asked incredulously, before exhaling deeply and shaking his head. "What am I saying, of course you did."
To his right, Sways eyestalks were twitching up and down, scanning something unseen; she was likely doing a search of the Terran datanet with her implant to see if the name held any significance. An assessment which was proven accurate moments later.
"You named it after a mythical predator-deity said to herald an apocalyptic event?" she asked in confusion.
"Well, it is a giant monster with a huge gaping maw; one which will only get bigger as it grows" replied Walker.
"...his upper jaw against the sky, his lower on the earth, and twould gape more widely still were there room" quoted Silver.
"Ah. I understand" replied Sways after a moment, as her implant supplied her with contextual data.
Hool gave Admiral Walker a knowing look. "I suspect it was either that, or something disproportionally 'cute' for such a dangerous creature."
Admiral Walker rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Yes. Half the bridge crew wanted to call it cutesy names."
"I do not understand. Why would they want to give such a creature a 'cute' name?" inquired Sways curiously.
"At a guess, because they find the irony amusing; though it could just as easily be because they actually do find it 'cute'. You never can tell with them" replied Hool, shaking his head.
"Anyway.....we contacted you both to invite the Compact and Weavers to jointly study the creature with us, if any of your exobiologists are interested" stated Ambassador Petrov.
"How are you even planning to contain such a creature, much less keep it under control?" asked Hool.
"Well, as of now, we don't know enough about Void Wolf physiology and biochemistry to chemically tranquilize Fenrir; and even if we did, and could somehow supply a suitable quantity of sedative, we do not presently have a suitable delivery mechanism. The good news though is that, at least for now, our ships have enough power to gravitically tractor Fenrir in place if it becomes necessary to physically restrain him; and judging by our scans and what information is available in the Compact's database, these creatures appear reliant on their parents for FTL travel for some time after birth." explained Walker.
"Actually sir, I may already have a way to stun Fenrir if it should prove necessary" commented Silver slowly.
"How?"
"After reviewing our battle data, I believe the combined EM and neutron pulse from a tactical enhanced radiation weapon, initiated at a distance sufficient to prevent physical harm, should serve to temporarily blind and disorient Fenrir" replied Silver.
"You want to use a nuclear warhead as a disciplinary implement?" asked Hool incredulously.
"Of course not! What kind of pet owner wants to nuke their pet!?" replied Silver defensively. "I said if necessary."
"ANYWAY...." continued Admiral Walker loudly, "...capturing this creature was an unexpected development, but also presents an unprecedented opportunity to learn more about this species. Finding ways to safely repel or avoid them, maybe even train them, would be quite useful given their attraction to our FTL drives."
"Indeed. I've already got people scrambling to contact scientists and animal specialists across the system as we speak. I'm also sure they will be able to come up with something more humane and effective than using a neutron bomb like a rolled up newspaper" said Ambassador Petrov, looking pointedly at Silver.
"Damnit Jim, I'm a Tactical AI not a dog trainer!" complained Silver.
"We can tell" replied Walker dryly.
"Et Tu, Admiral?" Silver asked, in a betrayed tone.
"Why not simply discard your [Ripple Drives] and use Hyperspatial Drives instead?" inquired Sways. "You now have the vessel captured from the [Hateful Ones]. It should be simple to reverse engineer the technology of it's drive by studying it, especially with our assistance. You wouldn't have to worry about the creatures then."
"That isn't an option. While they can attract dangerous creatures, and are significantly more power-hungry, Alcubierre Drives are several times faster than Hyperspatial Drives. The mobility they provide our fleet is a strategic advantage that we are unwilling to surrender; in fact, it is the only reason is why our forces were able to reach your world in time to provide assistance" replied the Admiral.
"That being said" Admiral Walker continued, "I'm going to be recommending to the President and the Senate to restrict their usage primarily to military vessels going forward. At this time, it is simply too dangerous for civilian vessels to be equipped with them; not that most could afford to do so. So while we will not be abandoning this technology, Hyperspatial drives might hold some interest for civilian and commercial use."
"I see. A risky strategy, but limiting usage will help mitigate some of the danger" Sways replied.
"As for your invitation, I will relay it to our goverment. An attempt to [Life-Weave] such creatures into your [grove/nation/polity/symbiotic organization] is an....... ambitious undertaking. I am certain there will be individuals interested in participating."
"I will also relay your proposal; though I'm a bit dubious about the feasibility of taming these creatures" commented Hool tiredly. "However, at the very least, it is a valuable opportunity to study them closely, and all knowledge is valuable."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
After their meeting concluded, Sways made her way back to the embassy sector via transport tube, escorted by one of the [New Ones] from Sergeant Moore's detachment. In addition to being her protectors, they had also taken up the mantle of being her "Culture Sherpa", as one had called it. They would attempt to answer various questions she posed, to the best of their ability, or refer her to someone who could.
Normally Moore himself would be doing so, however he was presently receiving attention from, as best as she could tell, some type cybernetics/healthcare specialist. The translation device hadn't liked the local terminology much.
Moore had initially described the occupation with several different terms, which had come out as things like [Doctor Who Rips] or [Bones of a Saw], before giving up and providing a definition. When she subsequently expressed concern about his health, Moore had assured her that he was not sick or experiencing implant rejection, the visit was merely to receive an upgrade.
As Sways and her escort exited the tube, they passed through a prominade filled with [New Ones], dotted here and there with individuals from other species, all waiting for their own tubes or for a mass transit tram.
As they reached the station for the tram that would take them to their next stop, a cheerful digital voice came from close behind her.
"(Hello!! You Weaving Spooder! Is Right?)"
Soundtrack
Sways turned around, and beheld one of the [New Ones] symbiote-companions. This one was of the species designated [Felis Catus]. She had seen several assisting with the relief efforts on her world, but had never interacted with any. This one had orange fur, green eyes, and was wearing a metal ring around it's neck, which projected an emotive holo-image [?].
It also appeared to have appropriated one of the cleaning machines as it's own personal transport, sitting atop the disc shaped device as if it were a vehicle.
The [New Ones] often shortened her species name to [Weaver], as their True Name was apparently quite a mouthful in the local languages. From context with "Spooder", which the translator declared to mean ["Arachnid", Slang, Prob: 95%], Sways hypothesized the cat was asking her if it had correctly identified her species.
"Ah.....yes. Yes I am" she replied, a bit uncertain.
The cat's emotive holo-image changed to a stylized "smile", and the cleaning machine turned in a quick circle.
(Yay! Tigger right! First Spooder-Friend!)
Sways couldn't help but jitter in affection at the furry creature's hatchling-like joy.
"It is a pleasure to meet you little one. My name is [Sways-With-The Wind's-Hymn]" she replied.
(Am Tigger. Am trainee Space-Cat.)
"A.... space cat?" she asked, her eyestalks tilting in curiosity.
(Yes! Tigger did good. Saved littles. Important humans ask Tigger to help important mission.)
They spoke briefly, of each of their journeys to get here, when the tram arrived and began to offload its passengers.
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you little one, but it is time for me to go." Sways said.
(Ok. Bye Spooder-Friend. Good meet you.)
As the cat's robotic mount turned to leave, Sways noticed that sitting behind Tigger on his bot was a bag of red and white cloth [New One] foot coverings.
It was.... odd.
"Tigger, why are you carrying foot coverings?"
(Santa coming soon! Tigger been extra good! Get treats!)
"I..... see" Sways replied, confused. She looked at her escort. The marine was covering his mouth, apparently trying to stifle an involuntary expression of amusement. "That is good to hear."
It appeared she was going to have some more questions for her escort soon.
(Have you been good Spooder?) the cat inquired.
"I like to think so. I wouldn't want to be bad."
The cat paused for a moment, appearing to be considering something.
(Here. Take one Tigger stockings. Santa bring you treats too!)
"They will?" She replied, bewildered.
(Think so. Logic as follows:)
In the air, holographic text appeared.
{IF: Human * good = True, AND Tigger * good = True
Gets Treats = True
ELSE:
Gets Treats = False
THEREFORE
Human * good = Tigger * good
THEREFORE
Person_type * behavior = treats/no treats}
It took a moment for Sways to process this, but in a flash she understood what the creature was trying to express:
It didn't matter who or what you were, as long as you behaved well.

I'm writing this after a few hours of gameplay. I had to restart the tutorial 4 times because the objectives kept bugging out. The "hold F and click" system is absolutely atrocious and extremely cumbersome as it is but is even worse because of the interaction lag. Everything interaction takes 1-2 seconds to update and take effect. Sometimes, when I'm clicking on a lift button or to activate a door, I move too fast and the system doesn't register the click.
There is no explanation on how to customize your ship, no tooltips on the ship components you can buy. I had to use external resources to learn how the most basic things work in the game.
I disconnected from the game while in my ship, while parked on a planet, and when I reconnected after a minute or so, I was spawned in my apartment, my ship was left where I was just a minute ago and the mission I was doing was failed even though I already collected the package I was supposed to deliver. So the game saves the location of your ship but not your avatar. Incredibly frustrating.
When I restarted this same delivery mission, my package was taken by another player and I had no clear way of contacting that player.
And then there are the janky animations, the awkward movement speeds, the unnecessary thirst and hunger meters, the refueling and repair mechanic that is completely unexplained and I have no idea how it works, the trams that overlap each other in stations.
And above all, the fact that they charge you real money for ships, in a 60$ game.
When I raised these same issues in game, with the people in the global chat, I was called a "space karen". My only explanation about this violent reaction from the player base when confronted with valid criticism (at least in my opinion) can only be attributed to the fact that these players invested a lot of money in the game and are fiercely defending it.
The only good aspect of this game is the fact that it looks pretty good. The textures and materials are pretty good, the lighting looks nice but even this is trumped by the fact that the game eats up a lot more resources than it should.
Comparing Star Citizen with Elite Dangerous, as it is the closest competitor, Elite plays better, has more gameplay opportunities, no gamebreaking bugs and little to no visual bugs, the UI/UX is miles better and it even looks a bit better visually.
It is absolutely not worth wasting your money and time on this game. Elite Dangerous has it's issues but its much better and respectful with your time.

In the bustling realm of online streaming, where pixels danced and avatars conversed, there lived a viewer named Tram. A legend in the chat of the famed streamer Lospollostv, Tram was no ordinary mortal. He was a digital deity, a mythic figure who existed on a plane of cunning and chaos.
Tram, they said, was the GOAT—Greatest Of All Time—a title he wore like a virtual crown. His keystrokes were like orchestral movements, crafting elaborate schemes that left the stream's denizens in awe. From whispers of trivia answers to predicting the outcomes of virtual battles, Tram was always one step ahead, his presence a mixture of mystique and enigma.
With a few clicks, Tram would concoct ingenious riddles, leading the streamer and his viewers on merry chases for the promise of rewards that may or may not exist. His scams were so legendary that they became almost revered, the stuff of late-night chat lore.
While others dabbled in emotes and chatspeak, Tram communicated in an ancient language of wit and cunning. His words were a double-edged sword, delivering comedic quips one moment and cryptic challenges the next. It was as if his every utterance contained a code that only the worthy could decipher.
Lospollostv's chat was Tram's kingdom, and he reigned supreme with a smirk and a digital wink. His moniker echoed in hushed tones among viewers, the mere mention of his name enough to ignite a whirlwind of speculation and excitement.
And so, in the ever-shifting landscape of an online stream, Tram existed as a deity of deception, the GOAT scammer whose exploits lived on in internet infamy. To the viewers of Lospollostv, he was both a mischievous trickster and a legendary figure, leaving an indelible mark on the digital realm where pixels and personalities collided.

Here are my review for the 2023 Book Bingo! I did my square with just books I could get at my library. I am considering doing another card, since I finished this so early. Beware Spoilers in the reviews. I didn't really find any categories hard to find a book for this year.
​
Title with a Title
Truthwitch-Susan Dennard HM 4/5
Two best friends are on the run after their attempted heist goes wrong. Safi is a truthwitch, and Iseult is a threadwitch. I liked this! I enjoyed the girl’s friendship, even though I wished more had be shown to how it had developed. Found some things were unexplained, but I guess it left like that on purpose for the sequels. I was a little annoyed that some characters seemed to have plot armor and were saved at the end, when one character just got to stay dead. I will continue reading this series.
Superheroes
Super Powereds: Year One Drew Hayes- HM 4/5
This is a take on the school for special people trope. I listened to this on audiobook, since that was all my library had, and it’s the first time I have ever listened to an audiobook with a full cast and sound effects. It was interesting the separation the world between super powered- people who can control their abilities- and powered those who cannot. So, the 5 students that had allowed themselves to be experimented on have to hide that from the other super powered students. Maybe this changes throughout the trilogy but I liked that the book remained small stakes. They were focused on school.I like the author poking fun at him introducing character months in, and them basically responding, there are only 40 of us, don’t you know my name? A lot of descriptions of fights, but I guess its to be expected.
Bottom of the TBR
At the Feet of the Sun- Victoria Goddard HM 5/5
I have been wanting so badly to read this since it came out last year. The only reason it was at the bottom of the TBR, was I was waiting a long time for the library to order it for me. I absolutely love this whole series. Goddard’s writing makes me cry, which is sort of awkward since I was reading this at work. Also, I am more and more in enjoying slice of life books, where there are no huge stakes. This book is exactly that! Cliopher is mostly compilating retirement, and what he will do with his life when he is done running the world’s government. He is so sincere and tender in his wish for friends and fitting in at home. We could all learn from Cliopher repeatedly making himself have the patience to listen and wait when people are talking to him. Cliopher ends up on quite an adventure. I was just wishing the whole time that Cliopher got everything he wanted. I am so excited there will be a third!
Magical Realism
The London Séance Society-Sarah Penner HM 3.5/5
I liked that the main character Lenna came into the spiritualist world as a skeptic. Of course, the book basically immediately hints that she is turning into a powerful medium. It would have been interesting is she had no powers. I did like that the man that invited them to London to do the séance turned out to be the fake. I also liked that Evie turned out to be more than a one-dimensional dead sister.
Young Adult
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea- Axie Oh -HM 3/5
I just thought this book was fine. I had happened to have chosen to read it on April 1, before I even had read the bingo card. The book seemed just kind of generic. I wasn’t very surprised with anything that happened, even the twist at the end I saw coming. I felt like most of the characters didn’t have very much character growth. The most interesting was the goddess who switched at the end. I liked the family and friend connections, but the romantic relationship was lacking for me.
Mundane Jobs
The Outside- Ada Hoffmann HM 3/5
Yasira Shien is a scientist, completing a new energy drive on a space station, when things go horribly wrong. I was going to try and fit this in the angels and demons square, as their gods are overlord like AI’s. The god’s agents are angels. After the energy drive opening warps reality, she is kidnapped by the angels to force her to find her old mentor who is a heretic. Yasira is autistic, and I wonder what someone who is autistic would think of the portrayal. I don’t think I will continue the series.
Published in the 00’s
Black Man- Richard Morgan HM 3/5
Carl is a genetically engineered ex-soldier, working as a hitman in the future. Sevgi is a detective investigating a spaceship crash. I had never heard of this author and found this book randomly second hand. It switches between various character connected to the crash. The perpetrator is a genetically enhanced soldier that turned to cannibalism to keep himself fed on the trip from mars to earth. At a certain point I had to google if this was a sequel, I couldn’t tell if the background was just mysterious or if I was supposed to know some information already. The author really liked describing futuristic bra’s. The dynamic on Carl being accused as a traitor to the genetically enhanced was interesting. The middle was my favourite. I wasn’t that into the beginning and the end. Too many fight scenes for me.
Angels and Demons
The Dirty Streets of Heaven-Tad Williams HM 3.5/5
Doloriel is a advocate angel, that advocates for the souls of humans when they die. It was interesting to me that the concept was a straight lawyer type procedure. He starts looking out for a new trainee angel. When a soul goes missing, Doloriel starts investigating. I thought it was a little funny that the only weapons he has to fight the demons was regular guns. Doloriel seems kinda like a generic urban fantasy book private detective. I was disappointed that his love interest was introduced as a bad ass demon then immediately was turned into a vulnerable victim that needed him to save her.
Five Short Stores
Exhalation- Ted Chiang HM 4/5
A collection of short stories. Exhalation was unique. In the lifecycle of software objects, AI’s are created as pets/avatars. Basically everything that can go wrong does.I like the problems that arise are nuanced and make sense rather than go to terminators, trying to take over the world. I liked this collection. Ted has good ideas, and his stories were compelling.
Horror
Into The Drowning Deep- Mira Grant-HM 4/5
I was so excited to learn Seanan McGuire had another penname! I had no idea and I love her writing. A film crew is lost at sea, to a brutal mermaid attack. Tory is a marine biologist whose sister died in the attack. She has made it her life’s work to figure out what happened. She makes a journey to the Marianas Trench, as part of an expedition to prove existence of the mermaids. The descriptions of the mermaids are sufficiently scary. I liked the cast of characters and scientists on the boat. The mermaid’s mimicry is especially creepy.I did find it a little skeptical that they never turned the boat back on to leave, unless I missed something there was nothing wrong with the engines. Was a little horror movie tropey. Also that Dr Toch magically took control of every situation even over the medical doctors.
Self-Published
Kings of Paradise-Richard Nell not HM 4.5/5
I wanted to read this for a long time from recommendation from this sub. My library amazingly ordered it for me. Ruka is a genius born with a deformity and into poverty. Kale is the expendable youngest prince, now in the marines. Also, Kale? Characters named after leafy greens is hilarious. I also liked the introduction of Dala, whose family Ruka killed after they stole a deer carcass off him. Dala is trying to become a priestess and started a murder band with society’s unmentionables to do it. I was just thinking Ruka is not getting much time in this book, when he saves a bard, I guess to have a character for him to talk to. Ruka is being set up as the possible evil king? Hopefully it doesn’t go that way. It will be interesting to see how the two worlds collide. I really enjoyed this! Looking forward to the next book in the series.
Set in the middle East
The Daughters of Izdihar- Hadeer Elsbai- HM 4/5
This is set in a fantasy version of Egypt. Nihal wants to go to school to be a water weaver, and become a soldier, rather than be married off, as her family wants. Giorgina is the girlfriend of Nihal’s fiancé, Nico. Giorgina is an earth weaver and is part of the Daughters Of Izdihar, promoting women’s rights. Both women are fighting to find freedom for themselves and women in society. Nihal falls in love with the leader of the Daughter’s Malak.I will continue the duology when the next book comes out.
Published in 2023
Tress of the Emerald Sea-Brandon Sanderson- not HM 4/5
I really liked the character of Tress! She is so determined, courageous and just a loveable character! I really liked the found family she made along the way as well. She leaves her home in attempt to rescue her kidnapped boyfriend and ends up joining and rescuing a pirate crew as well. You don’t need the Cosmere background to enjoy this story. The world is infected with seas of spores that each react differently to water. Which is a problem when sailing around on the seas you have humans that are basically water balloons. I had just read Stardust, and this defiantly gave the same classical fairytale vibes.
Multiverse
Stardust-Neil Gaiman -HM 4/5
A classic fairytale. It is portal fantasy to get to fairyland, but I am counting a gap in a wall- not a door. A nice quick read. I like the reveal about Tristran’s mom. Didn’t see that coming!
POC Author
Empire of the Wild-Cherie Dimaline not HM 4/5
Joan’s husband goes missing, and a year later she runs into him in a Walmart parking lot. He claims to have no idea who she is. This would also be able to be used for Mythical beasts, as the first nations creature of Rogarou is featured. Victor is now a reverend preaching for Jesus. Joan works to rescue him. As an Ontarian I liked the local setting. I felt for Zeus, Joan’s nephew. The murderer got pretty quick payback for their actions.
Book Club
In the Lives Of Puppets-TJ Klune HM 4.5/5
Halfway
I like the concept of a human boy being raised by a machine. It wasn't really a Pinocchio retelling I thought except for that reversal? I like the banter between Vic and his two robot sidekicks. My guess it that the struggle in the book is going to be that Vic’s blood that he used to start Hap’s heart connected Hap to Vic somehow, and Vic will feel guilty/bad about that. Also, usually TJ Klune books involve romance, so they will fall for each other. Ok I wasn’t expected the destruction of their home and Gio’s death. Has the world been taken over completely by the androids? Is Vic the last human?
Final
Hap threatens the Coachmen with beheading, would that even harm an android? It was interesting to me that the City Of Electric dreams was grimy, run down, and full of consumerism and capitalism. The androids wanted to kill all the humans to save the world, but don’t clean their city up? I was expecting the merry band to get to the city and have it be a futuristic utopia.
Novella
The Haunting of Tram Car 015-P. Djeli Clark 3/5 – not HM
A supernatural investigator, tries to solve the haunting of an aerial tram car. This novella is in the Dead Djinn Universe, which is a Cairo in 1912, that has become futuristic with the existence of the supernatural and the help of the Djinn. The mythical beast is a creature that wants to steal women’s babies. I liked the setting, and the background plot of women’s suffrage.I actually travelled to Egypt in Mar 2023, and it was interesting to read a fantasy version, and see how it compared to the real thing.
Mythical Beasts
Not Even Bones- Rebecca Schaeffer- HM 3.5/5
In a world where humans know they aren’t alone on the planet, Nita family deals in selling nonhuman’s body parts on the black market. Nita does the autopsies. It comes to a head when a live person is brought to Nita, and she can’t help her mother kill the teenage boy, even if he isn’t human. Nita is not human either, she can manipulate her biology. Her own mother sells her to the black market in punishment for helping the boy escape.
Elemental Magic
Witch King- Martha Wells -HM 3/5
I have like everything I have read by Martha Wells in the past. I just did not like this one. It felt like a sequel, there was too many in world terms and titles without enough explanation. I kept finding myself skimming the book since I didn’t care about any of the characters. The elemental magic portion, is one of the characters can control the wind.
Myths and Retellings
Black Water Sister- Zen Cho- HM 4.5/5
I like the premise. Jess returns to Malaysian with her parents, and her dead grandmother starts haunting her. I liked the perspective of a first generation American, returning to her parents’ home country. Jess gets dragged into the world of the local gods, and she tries to deal with the shenanigans that arise. I really enjoyed this!
Queernorm
The Spare Man- Mary Robinette Kowal-not HM 4/5
A murder mystery in space! Tesla Crane husband is arrested for murder on her honeymoon, and she works to solve the crime. I did like that her husband was an ex-detective, but that she was the one doing the sleuthing. I pretty much like everything Kowal writes. My absolute favourite character was Tesla’s service dog Gimlet. As for the queer norm setting, it is normative in this book to clarify pronouns. I have just been antidotally noticing this more and more in sci-fi. It is interesting to note how predictions for the future change as our current cultural values changes.
Coastal
All the Murmuring Bones-A.G Slatter 4/5
The O’Malleys have made a deal that they sacrifice a child a generation to the mer people, in return they prosper. Now the family is down to just Miren and her grandmother, and they are now poor. She runs from her home to escape marrying her cruel cousin. This would also work for mythical beasts square.
Druids
Slewfoot-Brom HM 4/5
Abitha struggles to fit into the Puritan society she has married into. Then her husband is murdered by a mysterious figure that is slowly coming back to his power. I did like that when slewfoot- or father offers to help her there Is no secrecy, she knows he is responsible for her husband’s death. It was interesting that Abitha came into her own power. Clearly the real villain is the sleazy brother in law. The book itself is beautiful, its wider than a usual book and has artwork. The ending kind of devolved into torture porn.
Robots
Killing Gravity- Corey J. White not HM 3.5/5
An enhanced human is trying to not be escape the group that experimented on her. Drones and androids are both employed by the group chasing her. Lots of AI and other futuristic elements as well. I liked that for a revenge story it also found her making friends along the way and reunited with her sister. Ok never mind, the sister didn’t last long. I like the flying squirrel companion. At least from the description I think it’s a flying squirrel?
Sequel
Magic’s Price- Mercedes Lackey HM 4/5
The third book in the Last Herald Mage series. FYI, if you decide to read this series, watch out for the blurb on the back on the first book, mine had complete spoilers. I believe this is the first series I have read by Mercedes Lackey, and I was happy to get into after hearing a lot about her. This book has another time to jump to start and Vanyel is trying to save the life of his friend and king. I do think it is interesting that both for this book and the first in the series, the fact that is basically a gay romance isn’t mentioned anywhere in the blurb. I guess a sign of the times it was published in. It was a good ending to the series, that the third book ended full circle from the ending of the first book. I found it interesting the foretold big battle scene in the first book had a very minor part in the series. Just the very end of this book. It mostly had a smaller focus, which I enjoyed.

2.27.0.45 -> 2.27.0.46

• A-6E TRAM : Added 3rd person NVD
• MILAN ATGM, MILAN 2 ATGM, Type 64 MAT ATGM, 9M14 ATGM, 9M113 ATGM "Konkurs", 9M14-2 Malyutka-2 missiles, 9M14M Malyutka missiles, HJ-73, BGM-71B TOW ATGM, BGM-71C I-TOW ATGM, 9M114, HOT ATGM, HOT-K3S ATGM, LFK SS.11 ATGM, SS.11 ATGM, Robot 52 (SS.11) ATGM, BAe Swingfire ATGM, 3M7 ATGM : Shrapnel slightly nerfed
• HJ-9 ATGM : irBeaconBand variable "renamed" to beaconBand (might change something)
• New Avatar : "Esport Man" : https://i.imgur.com/Ti8uGPQ.png

Current Dev version : 2.27.0.46
Current Live version : 2.27.0.45

[first] [prev] [next] - [wiki]
Man plans. God smirks. The Universe howls with laughter.
Nakteti stared up the slope of Mount Meru, up at the ring of clouds that circled the very top of the eight thousand meter tall mountain. She stood at the base, having walked with Surscee, Chuck, and Magnus from the mat-trans. The day was warm, a light breeze cooling the fur and the skin, with streaks of clouds in the blue sky that gave no hint to the storm only hours before.
"How do we get up there, to the City of Souls?" Nakteti asked.
Magnus pointed at a small building. "You can take the tram if you wish," he pointed slightly upward and Nakteti could see a thin white line snaking back and forth up the mountain. "Or you can take the Stairway to Olympus, home of the Ancient Gods."
"Walk?" Nakteti asked.
"I intend to," Magnus said. He touched his forehead with two fingers in a strange, formal motion. "As my ancestors did, to beg the Gods themselves for boons, so shall I walk their path."
"I will join my brother," Surscee said. She smiled. "There will be temptations along the path. Ambrosia, fruit of the Gods. Golden apples, red dates, pomegranates, all such temptations for ones such as Magnus and I."
Nakteti just nodded, her eyes tracing the winding path of white stone. She could see small temples and buildings, columns and statues, along the path.
"May I join you?" Chuck asked.
Surscee smiled. "And walk the path of the immortals and gods? I, for one, would be pleased for you to join us along such a path."
Nakteti realized, with a sinking feeling, that she was going to need to climb the steps.
No matter how many thousand of them there were.
"Well, I guess we should get going," she said. She adjusted her leather belt and patted the pouch at her waist. "The day waits for no man," she quoted.
The others nodded and together they walked toward the white path.
Six hours later Nakteti wished she was dead.
She sat next to the fountain, gasping, her legs burning, her gripping arms aching. They were only just past a vast bridge over a place called the "Cleaver of Despair", stopping at fountains, temples, statues, and more in an area paved with white S-style stones.
"We should spent the night here," Magnus said, moving over and sitting on a bench.
Nakteti hated that he looked fresh and ready to keep going.
"How much further?" she asked.
"We are one third of the way up," Magnus said. "We will have to move slowly further up, as the air will be thinner."
"Maybe masks?" Nakteti suggested.
Magnus shook his head. "Nay. This is a test of muscle and bone. As the Detainee tested our souls, loyalty, and oaths, this path tests your resolve and your strength."
Nakteti managed not to groan and looked at Chuck. "At least it's easy for you."
Chuck shook his head. "No," he said. He waved his hand. "This exists in digital space, overlapping what you interact with. It saps my strength, so to speak, by forcing me to devote processing power to simply lift up one foot and set it down," he gave a tired grin. "Whoever built this coded it well."
Nakteti just shook her head. "Seven inch steps," she said. "The steps are knee high on me."
Magnus smiled. "Your commitment is admirable, Captain."
Nakteti looked up the mountain. "I understand, intellectually, why your people would not put an autowalk path, but right now I wish your people were a bit more lazy."
Magnus laughed.
-----
Nakteti staggered over and half collapsed on the bench. Her chest burned, she kept heaving breaths, feeling like she was unable to get a full breath, like she was slightly suffocating. She was covered in sweat, the thin air making must walking up the steps and along the paths an exhausting effort.
"Day Two, I have realized that somehow my knees hurt," Chuck said, sitting next to her. Nakteti noticed his face was covered in glitter and his normally immaculate clothing looked like it was damp. "Curse the programmers who built this."
Surscee walked by, humming to herself, smiling. She paused at the fountain, watching the fireflies move around it.
"Day Two, I have come to hate my companions," Chuck whispered, leaning over to speak softly to Nakteti.
Nakteti laughed. "Day Two, I have come to the realization that my companions may be some kind of robot."
Surscee laughed, turning to face Chuck and Nakteti. "Our steps are lighter," she smiled.
"How?" Chuck grumped.
"I walk in the footsteps of the Ancients. Of my ancestors. Upon the soil of Lost Atlantis, destroyed in the Mantid Attack. I walk the paths of ancient heroes up the slopes of Mount Meru to Olympus itself," she said. "The joy makes my limbs lighter, fills my chest with sweet resolve," she inhaled deeply, her breasts rising.
"Yeah, they're full of something," Nakteti grumbled.
Surscee laughed again. "You will look back upon this trip with fondness in your twilight years. You will tell your progeny that bravely walked these steps, your head held high. You will forget your exhaustion, the endless toil to take each step, and remember only your victory and the wonder."
Nakteti hung her head and nodded.
"And Lo, did the Traveler climb the steps of Mount Meru, upon Holy Lost Atlantis, a song in her heart, with flashing eyes and tousled hair, her footsteps sure and graceful as she trod each marble step," Magnus said, his voice serious. "Toward her destination, Olympus, home of the Ancient Gods and the site of the wisdom and great works of the ancient Terrans of old."
Nakteti snorted. "Can I fast forward to the part where I'm lying to everyone?" she laughed.
-----
Nakteti sat on the marble bench, statues of Terran women carrying jugs of water bracketing the bench. Surscee was laying on the bench across from her, on the other side of the fountain that showed two naked male Terrans wrestling, fanning herself. Magnus was down on one knee in front of one of the altars, his eyes closed, one hand on the pommel of his grounded sword, his other hand clenched into a fist and pressed against the ground.
Chuck stood by a high stone tablet, at least five meters tall and two meters wide, covered with runes and glyphs that were lit with a glimmering inner light.
"So what is it?" Nakteti asked Chuck.
"More Rosetta Stone," Chuck said. "Pure math, we've moved from advanced math to some really esoteric stuff. Chemistry and metallurgy are mixed in."
He knelt down, running his hands over the threads of glyphs. "Got the recipe for Niven-Skrith right here. Not the manufacturing, but the atomic and strange matter makeup of it."
Nakteti nodded slowly.
Chuck got up and moved to another, putting his hand on it. The glyphs and runes started glowing with a soothing green light.
"More codexes, compression algorithms, stuff on how to read further on tablets and obelisks," he said. He moved over and sat on the bench next to the one Nakteti was sitting on. "They created this path to teach any who climbed it the math and materials they used to create this place," he shook his head, lifting up a 'wineskin' full of code defraggegarbage collection and took a swig, swishing out his mouth. "By the time you reach the top, you could probably build a Niven-Ring or a Doom Tube."
"Could you build this?" Nakteti asked.
Chuck shook his head. "That's math by crazy people. Metallurgy and materials by the insane. Computer coding and science by the mad. I'm Terran and I can barely grasp the concepts."
"That and until you got here, you thought expansion radiation was a disproven junk science theory," Surscee said.
Chuck nodded. "Last tablet had the solid math and strange particle physics for it. Definitive proof along with the way to generate it in order to replicate your testing through empirical evidence."
Nakteti looked up. "Wait, they can generate expansion radiation?"
Chuck nodded. "It's part of how they built this place. Harnessing the expansion radiation pulses. Layering some kind of field between the expansion radiation pulses and the protomatter pulses. The field orders and layers the protomatter into the matter they want," he laughed. "Think of the anomaly as a mass tank and those fields as a nanoforge capable of building these entire layers."
Nakteti rubbed her eyes. "OK, enough science for crazy people," she looked up. "We should get there tomorrow afternoon."
Surscee looked up and nodded. "Yes."
Magnus stood up, moving over and sitting down. "What did I miss?" he asked.
"We should be there tomorrow, past temptation," Surscee said. She looked at the fruit laden trees surrounding the marble decorated clearing. "The red dates tempt me."
Magnus nodded.
Nakteti stared at the fruit trees. "Do you think they really grant immortality?"
Chuck laughed and Nakteti looked at him. He gave a wry, self-mocking smile. "If you had told me that there was fruit that might grant immortality, I'd have recommended you to a mental hospital," he looked at the red date trees. "Now? Well... I can see them in the digital world too. Strange, alluring code that whispers of secrets that perhaps I am not meant to know."
Magnus drew his sword, setting it on his lap, and pulled free a whetstone. "The Gods tempt us. Can we trod the path of Mount Meru without giving into temptation?"
Nakteti sighed. "Yes. The fruit is tempting, but we have our own food and drink."
She looked at the fruit.
"Although it is tempting."
-----
Nakteti came around the corner of the path, leaving the neat rows of the golden fig trees orchards, the tall sweet smelling bushes on either side of the worn marble path, and into a clearing that had statues around the edges, a fountain in the middle, and benches.
Magnus, Surscee, and Chuck were all standing in the clearing, staring up.
Nakteti moved forward, out from under the tress, and looked to see what they were looking at.
She gasped.
Glittering crystal and marble, shining glittering black warsteel. Columns of glittering warsteel held up buildings of marble. Pathways surrounded each building, skybridges connected the buildings. The clouds wisped between the buildings. She could see crystal windows that allowed light into the buildings.
It was a fairy tale construction, buildings of myth and legend, artwork made real.
"Never hath mine eyes beheld such beauty as that of the works of the Ancients," Magnus said softly.
The last set of stairs only wound up about ten meters, going through an archway that was filled with shimmering energy.
Nakteti noted that there was no path on the other side.
"It's kind of funny," Chuck said, sitting down on one of the benches. He pointed at a statue of a naked muscular Terran fighting some kind of giant feline.
"What?" Nakteti asked, sitting down on the bench and taking off her hat so she could fan herself.
"This could have all been done with typical modern construction. Office buildings and the like," Chuck said.
"Nay," Magnus said.
Nakteti turned and looked at him. "Really?"
Chuck frowned. "Why not?"
Magnus waved at where the fountain showed two armored Terran women, their faces severe but caring, pulling a man from the water.
"This is a place where sentient being's immortal souls are entrusted," he said. "Office buildings, arcologies, all of those are soulless constructs, devised to wring the most optimum performance out of those who must toil under the lash of quotas. When this place was built, scarcity was just being overcome, millions toiled each day to enrich the powerful."
Chuck nodded.
"This place is a solemn place, and this architecture reflects that solemn purpose," Magnus said. "A soulless skyraker or arcology would speak of unending toil rather than rebirth and the caring of everlasting souls."
Surscee smiled, stepping up behind her brother and putting her arms around his waist, laying her head on his shoulder from behind.
"To be soulless construction, devised to wring every last erg of toil from the belabored, would destroy that which this is entrusted with," Magnus said. He reached up and patted his sister's head. "Without our souls, mankind is but a rude and violent beast."
Surscee let go and moved over to sit down on a bench, looking up at the buildings. Magnus went and sat down next to Chuck, digging in a pouch at his waist to pull out a handful of dehydrated apricots.
Nakteti mulled over Magnus's words. More than that, but what was behind them.
The Lanaktallan, the Overseers, even her own people, had believed that religion was wasteful, that it did nothing.
But staring up at those buildings, hearing Magnus's words, knowing what the SUDS dealt with, it made sudden sense.
The Terran believe that there had to be something else, something beyond the known universe, beyond life and death, had led them to discover just that.
Unable to find Heaven or measure a soul, they had created both.
You can't mock their belief in life after death when they can actually come back from the dead, she mused. She looked up, thinking over Magnus's words. Soulless architecture would cheapen what is done here.
She sat, staring at the cloud decorated architecture, her chin in her catching hand.
I have seen visions. Visited places in my dreams that held truths of the greater universe. Been marked by my travels in my dreams and visions. Those very visions led me on a path to this place, perhaps the only way to reach this place. How can I discard what others would scoff at when I am surrounded by it?
She sat for a while, contemplating the statue of the Terran man wrestling with the huge fierce feline. Finally, she stood up and brushed the palms of all four hands on her legs.
"To the arch, and what lies beyond," she said.
The others stood up, waiting for her to lead the way.
It was a short walk, less than five hundred meters, along a path bracketed by sweet smelling bushes and statuary.
The arch was of white marble, inlaid with warsteel, gold, silver, platinum, and surprisingly enough, polished iron. The energy field across the middle was opaque pink, with swirls of pale blue, runes and glyphs moving across it.
She didn't pause, merely held her breath as she stepped through it.
It tingled. It burned slightly.
She saw the words pop up on her retinal link, which had been inoperative the entire trip.
ACCESS GRANTED - TIER 3 ASSISTANT SUPERVISOR
Nakteti stopped and stared.
More stairs.
"Of course," she sighed as the others stepped through.
She shifted her belt and started walking up the white marbled stairs, toward the buildings above.
-----
"Where is everyone?" Nakteti asked, looking around the big room. There were work consoles in arcs, each inner arc slightly higher than the one before it. The middle of the rear wall had a platform surrounded by monitors and hologram projectors. The windows let in sunlight, bathing the whole room in comfortable warmth.
She ran a finger over one desk, coming back with a clean fingertip.
Magnus stood up from where he had been examining the carpet in front of the door to the right of the middle of the back wall, shaking his head. "Nobody has trod here in ages."
Chuck stepped back from one of the work stations. "It's locked out. Worse than that, there's a black ICE sitting right inside the I/O port. As soon as I accessed it, that ICE checked my headers and started to stand up," he chuckled. "I basically ran away."
Surscee was staring out the window, watching as one of the huge black squares was rebuffed by a protective field and started to drift away.
Nakteti knew that the slow appearance of the movement belied the fact that square was moving at tens of thousands of miles an hour. It was just the sheer distances involved.
"How, in the name of the Digital Omnimessiah are we supposed to do anything?" Nakteti said, feeling her temper rise up.
There was a tearing noise on the far end of the room, making everyone turn to stare.
The huge beast strode in on clawed feet, ducking slightly to get through the portal. It beat its wings twice before it suddenly melted down into the figure of the Matron of the Damned.
"Not you," Nakteti said, feeling despair.
"Big guy's busy. What?" she asked.
Nakteti looked around. "How are we supposed to help?" she asked. "There's nobody to help. Nobody to tell us what do to! We've spent three days combing these buildings and found nobody, not even a VI that's online, that can give us any information."
The Matron sat down in one of the chairs, taking the time to light a cigarette.
Nakteti struggled with her temper for a moment, forcing it down.
Finally the Matron of the Damned exhaled smoke and stared at Nakteti.
"Your arrogance is astounding," she said.
Nakteti frowned.
"You assume you could just walk in, throw a switch, and everything would be fine? That Terrans would just poof into existence?" she laughed, a wild, mad thing. "Such arrogance makes the universe itself laugh at your folly."
Nakteti reached down and grabbed her thick leather belt, squeezing it where the leather had been compressed so many times it was dented on either side.
"Do you even understand what went wrong?" the Matron asked.
Nakteti shook her head.
"A pulse from the anomaly," Chuck said.
"The Gods laugh at us and foul our plans," Surscee guessed.
Magnus just sat down, digging in his pouch for dried apricots, staying silent.
"Why is it that everyone always assumes that it is one thing, one single point of failure, that caused the problem?" the Matron asked. "A properly robust system never has a single point of failure. That's asking for a good old fashioned ass fucking, so unless you're an ass fucking fan, you never design a system with a single point of failure."
Nakteti wrinkled her nose at the crudeness.
The Matron pointed at the huge squares. "That's just part of it."
Chuck sat down. "Will you tell us? Explain it to us?"
The Matron of the Damned sighed. "Normally, I would not. But Glowing Goody-Two Shoes asked me to help you. Normally, I'm a malicious compliance sort of girl, but then you'd just be wandering around, bitching, right where I can hear you, whining up the place and sniveling down the property values."
She stood up and moved to the windows, putting one hand on the window. She pulled her hand away, leaving a handprint of Terran skin oils on the window before taking a cloth out of her pocket and wiping it away.
With some surprise, Nakteti realized that she wasn't a hologram, a nanite cloud, or a hard light construct like Nakteti had assumed.
"There was a slight warning, when the doubling radiation started," the Matron said. "That let the crew that normally staffs this get to the safety areas and lock down the Thrint Fields," she tapped the window. "Then the explosion happened and the 4th dimensional topographical twisting and merging took place. That kept them on lockdown."
She turned away from the window and walked back to her chair, pausing long enough to tap her ashes in the ashtray she took from her pocket and set on the console.
"Now is when we get the major screwup," the Matron said. "The whole thing propagated through the entire SUDS onion, meaning everyone had to get to the shelters until the 4th Dimensional topography issue was solved and the radiation dropped low enough."
Nakteti nodded. "Right. We've fixed that."
The Matron laughed. "Yes, but the rest of the Onion, the deeper layers, they don't know that yet," she said. "With the Alpha Layer still taking damage from the shield squares, the shield squares being loose so that the anomaly can't be shielded, you have another point of failure."
"Can we fix the shield?" Chuck asked.
The Matron nodded. "I'll show you how. You'll have to supervise it, it'll take a year or so, but it's largely automated," The corner of her mouth twitched with amusement. "Automation protocols when this was built forbid unsupervised robotic systems," she smiled, a cold, cruel thing. "Your people's little Second Android Rebellion that kicked off the Second Biological/Digital War is why that protocol exists," her voice had a slight mocking edge. "You're the avatar of what screwed this shit up, Chuck."
"All right. I'll supervise it," Chuck said, trying to ignore his irritation at being blamed for a war that had happened thousands of years ago.
She smiled, turned to Nakteti and exhaled smoke. "The last one is the big one. It's not exactly a point of failure. It wouldn't be a big deal, except for to you it would be."
Nakteti nodded. "What would that be?"
The Matron smiled. "The main crew, trying to resynch the entire thing?" Her smile got even wider and she giggled slightly, a mad sounding thing.
"Yes?" Surscee asked, her words guarded and careful.
"They have to be in temporal synch with one of the core systems. There is no bypassing that point," the Matron smiled. "That single point of failure that has slowed work down for everyone else. The temporal synch is nearly two thousand to one and only getting worse, but it cannot be cut out, it cannot be bypassed, and the system cannot be activated for outside communication and use until at least the correct systems are in synch with the master timing and security system."
She exhaled smoke again, almost vanishing in the cloud.
"What does it have to be in temporal synch with?" Nakteti asked.
"Are you virgins?" The Matron asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Nakteti asked. "What does it need to be in synch with."
"Terra."
"Shit."
Nakteti couldn't tell who said it, hell, she might have.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE FUCKED NOW!" The Matron's laughter was wild and crazed.
[first] [prev] [next] - [wiki]